Once and For All
by roguetimechild
Summary: Leifang doesn't show up to the latest Dead or Alive tournament, much to Jann Lee's dismay. He decides to track her town, but not because he misses her or anything.


**A/N: Set after Dead or Alive 234782347 or something, where their rivalry is probably still going**

* * *

Fighters file past Jann Lee out of the arena now that the tournament has concluded. Jann Lee leans against the entry, arms crossed as he watches them go. There is one glaring absence among them. Jann Lee still observes everyone who exits, just in case he missed her, but he knew he hadn't. He'd have noticed her there.

Some of the ninja-types file out. He's never quite known entirely what their deal is, nor does he care to. Usually, Kasumi show up and things get worse for everyone and somebody gets cloned or something.

Tina gives him a wink as she passes. Jann Lee doesn't think she's flirting. That's just her personality. Then again, he wouldn't have cared to differentiate.

Hitomi bumps his shoulder as she walks past. She turns and opens her mouth to apologize, but when she sees that its him, she fixes her expression into an intense glare.

"Sorry," she says despite her obvious distaste. Even though she doesn't care much for him, she's still a nice girl.

The distaste probably begins with Leifang. Hitomi and Leifang are quite close, or so he's heard. He'd been there when the two of them met. Hitomi had berated him for treating Leifang so harshly.

Perhaps she'd had a point back then.

The last of the fighters exits the premises. Still no sign of her. She really didn't show up this year.

Jann Lee ambles listlessly down the street, kicking up rocks as he goes. Street vendors shout at him as he walks, selling their wares. Some of them recognize him from the tournaments and shout their approval at him. He's won the thing before, after all.

Lost in his own thought, he almost misses the flash of black hair ahead of him, the cheerful girl chatting up a street vendor.

Jann Lee charges forward.

"Leifang!" he calls.

Leifang looks up. She looks the same. Her hair is down today, hanging past her shoulder-blades, with a crown of braids around her heads. She's dressed casually, with a long blue jacket and a loose tie around her neck. When she sees him, she rolls her eyes, like he's inconvenienced her terribly. She turns on her booted heel and struts in the opposite direction.

"Leifang?" he calls again, unsure what else to do. It's not like she hadn't heard him.

Jann Lee takes off down the street after her. She picks up her pace when she senses him following her, but Jann Lee trots dutifully after her. In other contexts, perhaps the site of a shirtless, muscular guy running after a pretty young woman would raise some alarms, but enough people must recognize them from all the tournament. Probably just two fighters, at it again.

Leifang turns corner after corner, attempting to lose him. Jann Lee manages to keep up. Eventually, Leifang makes a wrong turn down an empty alley and comes to a dead end. She turns to run back, but Jann Lee is at her heels. She sighs deeply, stopping to catch her breath. She knows when she's beaten.

"Leifang, what's your problem?" Jann Lee scowls as he slows to a stop.

"Can you just leave me alone?" Leifang barks.

Jann Lee frowns at her tone. He's never seen her act like this. She's been determined and forceful and annoying, but she's never been cold with him.

Like he has with her, he supposes.

"Why didn't you compete in the tournament?" Jann Lee asks.

"We both know how that would've turned out," she rolls her eyes. "You won, right? Or one of the ninjas won, right? It's usually one of the ninjas."

"You weren't even going to try?" he asks.

"I wasn't there to win, I was there to beat you," she says. "And I'm sick of losing to you, Jann Lee."

"Huh?"

"That's how it goes every time, isn't it?" she remarks bitterly. "I insist that I'll beat you, and then I don't?"

"You've beat me before," Jann Lee recalls.

"Once," she bites out, "when the facility was falling apart and everyone had stopped paying attention. And then you get there to fight Alpha-152 before I can. You still had to prove you're better than me."

"Leifang-"

"I get it, okay?" she exclaims. "You've never thought I could cut it in your world. So fine. Okay. I can't. You win."

Jann Lee takes this in. Leifang had been something of a nuisance for a while. She wouldn't stop nagging her to fight him, and eventually, he grew accustomed to the rhythm of that. When she hadn't shown up to the most recent tournament at all, it'd felt off. It didn't feel like the tournament mattered as much.

Maybe, he ponders, he had missed her.

"Since when do you give up?" he asks. "That's not really your style."

"How many tournaments has it been, Jann Lee?" she snaps. "There comes a point where I'm just being ridiculous. And I don't appreciate you tracking me down just to rub it in my face!"

"You're not being ridiculous," he replies, "and I'm not here to rub it in your face!"

"Then why are you here?!" she exclaims.

"I..." Jann Lee trails off. "I don't know. I just wanted to know where you went."

"Well, now you know," Leifang gestures defeatedly to the empty alleyway around her. "You can go."

"So that's it?" Jann Lee presses. He could drop this. She wants him to. But something urges him to keep going. "No tournament ever again?"

"Were you not here for this whole conversation?" she frowns.

"Well, then let's settle this here and now then," Jann Lee declares, getting onto the balls of his feet and darting around in front of her.

"Are you serious?" she scoffs as her gaze flits down to his footwork. "How many tournaments have we had of settling it?"

"Those don't count," he dismisses. "There's usually some ninja nonsense going on around us. Someone else's drama we get caught up in. Let's settle it. Just you and me."

Leifang rolls her eyes again. "So you are here to gloat after all."

"That's not a no," he points out with a smirk. Leifang's expression mirrors his. Maybe she doesn't even realize it. She's excited for this, whether she wants to admit it or not.

"Fine," Leifang accepts, smashing her foot back into the ground behind her and squatting into her fighting stance. "Today's the day I will defeat you."

The corner of Jann Lee's mouth quirks. "You can call on me anytime." He centers himself, taking on his fighting stance and sending a fighting cry her way.

And then it begins, once and for all.

Leifang charges Jann Lee, thrusting her palms out and forcing him backwards. He stumbles, but regains his footing. He draws his fist back, ready to strike her, but she parries the blow and strikes him instead. He stumbles back, dazed.

Okay. Jann Lee feels a familiar frustration building within him. Sure, he'd been curious about where she went, bu he's not one to throw a fight. No more going easy on her.

Jann lee turns from her and drives his elbows backwards. The force of it sends her careening into the brick wall. He charges her, ready to strike while she's prone. Just when he's about to reach her, she sweeps her leg below him. He falls onto his face, and Leifang drives her boot into him on the ground.

"Up for more?" she taunts to his fallen form.

"Always," he growls back.

He rolls to his feet and rears his fists back, sending a series of hard, heavy blows directly to her. She cries out with each hit. He rears back for one final blow, but at the last moment, she throws her hands up in front of her face and parries the attack, striking him in the face. Taking advantage of her opening, she turns and presses her back into him. She grips him by the arm and hauls him over her, sending him back into the ground.

Jann Lee jumps up again a moment later. He unleashes a battle cry, and charges Leifang, his fist drawn back as he yells. Leifang tries to adjust for the blow, but parries too high. He drives his fist into her and she's thrown across the alley. Her back collides with the brick, and for a moment she's seeing stars. She falls onto her hands and knees, panting heavily.

"Try to hit me," Jann Lee taunts her.

"Try to shut up," Leifang throws back, her breath still ragged.

Now, I've got her, Jann Lee thinks to himself. He rushes toward Leifang's fallen figure, ready to finish this. Just as he reaches her, Leifang gets to her feet and uses his momentum to lift him up, driving him into the wall behind her. She steps back and drives her shoulder into him. He grunts in pain, his body sliding to the ground.

Leifang steps away and takes her stance again, her hands floating around her, ready to counter his moves at a moment's notice. Her white button-up shirt is covered in dirt now, and her big brown eyes are steely and determined.

She's beautiful like this, Jann Lee thinks. She's a spoiled, rich princess, but this is where she feels like home. This is where she shines.

Leifang has seen this situation play out so many times. Usually, it ends with her on the ground, resenting another loss. Hitomi would try to cheer her up about it. Look how many people you've beaten! You're a master of your fighting style! But that didn't matter to her. She only wanted to prove to Jann Lee that she was worthy. Hitomi would insist that it doesn't matter what he thinks. And maybe she's right. But that didn't mean Leifang still didn't ache to prove herself.

Jann Lee advances on her again. He grabs her arm an pulls her forward, holding her in place as he kicks her twice. She manages to wrench away, groaning in pain.

These fights don't usually last this long. It seems they're evenly matched. Finally.

Leifang sizes up her opponent. He's still dressed for the last tournament, in loose pants with a bare torso. Her eyes move down to his bare chest, sheened with sweat. She wants to pause and admire him, but she shakes that train of thought away.

That's how she lost tournament number five. She will not be distracted so easily again.

"It's about time someone took you down a peg," she says as she runs her sleeve across the sweat on her brow.

Jann Lee watches her closely. He chalks it up to being hyper-aware in order to win this fight.

"Plenty have tried," he says shortly.

Hm. Leifang had hoped to get him talking and strike while he was distracted, but Jann Lee is a man of few words in these events. She'll have to beat him on skill alone, but maybe that's how it should be done.

Leifang watches Jann Lee's precise footwork adjust slightly, and she scouts that he's about to charge her. She adjusts her stance as well, and she's sure he notices is.

Jann Lee shouts as he charges her. Leifang does the same.

They both run at full speed towards each other, anticipating the ultimate test of their power when the meet in the middle.

And when they finally meet, it's a tangle of limbs and fists and shouting and clawing. The both tumble to the crowd, striking blindly at each other. Eventually, Jann Lee falls onto his back. Leifang quickly lifts herself over him, holding him in place with a knee on either size of his hips. He tries to strike up at her, but she counters the blows easily.

She rears her fists back,ready to strike it, ready to end this rivalry between them once and for all.

Jann Lee watches her take the position, too exhausted to buck her off of him or strike before she can. Leifang breathes heavily on top of him. Her eyes burn. Her face is hot. This is the moment she's been waiting for since they met all those years ago. She sees that he's done. Jann Lee is done fighting her.

"I win?" she breathes, in disbelief.

"Yeah," he exhales. This situation would frustrate him typically, but she can't find that anger in him now.

Leifang pants, trying to gather her breath. She falls forward, exhausted, bracing herself to hover over him with her hands on either side of his head.

Leifang takes stock of how she feels. She'd been fighting for this for so long. She thought she'd feel accomplished now. Instead, she feels...nothing. What was the point of it? What was the point of this rivalry? What has she gained?

She focuses back on his face, mere inches from hers. He looks as thoughtless and confused as she feels.

They've been this way before, she dimly recalls. The train accident during the fifth tournament, she fallen on top of him like this. She'd been so distracted by it, she lost the tournament. Did he ever think about it?

"It's over then," Leifang whispers over him. "This thing between us. It's done."

Jann Lee just stares up at her. He doesn't know what to do with that.

Leifang hovers lower and lower over him as her arms slacken, getting closer and closer to his face Their heavy breaths mingle between them. Leifang's hair falls over her shoulders and onto his bare chest.

"No," Jann Lee decides, "it's not done."

He lifts his head and closes the distance between then, capturing her lips in a searing kiss.

She yelps in surprise, but it only takes a moment before she returns the gesture eagerly. An involuntary groan escape from him as she does. She trails a hesitant hand down his chest as she moves his lips against his. He reaches up pulls her down on top of him, his vice-like grip around her waist.

Jann Lee keeps his grip around her as he rolls them both to the side. Leifang hooks a leg around his waist and tangles a hand through his hair, bracing herself against him as he moves.

This is gross, probably, the both of them rolling around on concrete in an old alleyway. But with all those tournament stages, they've probably rolled around in worst.

Jann Lee guides them both until he's hovering over her. Her black hair splays out on the concrete below. She looks up at him, almost like she's nervous. She's so fiery and cocksure all the time, but now she's wide-eyed and tentative.

"This is a much better victory than being deemed the best fighter in the world, or whatever," Leifang muses as she gazes up at him. "We should've settled this outside the tournament the whole time."

Jann Lee chuckles, a sound low in his throat, and the noise makes Leifang's stomach do a little flip. He dips his head down to her, ready to kiss her again, but before he can, she lifts a hand between them and rests two fingers against his lips.

"Nuh-uh," she teases. She pushes herself off the concrete and deftly rolls out from under him. She gets to her feet and starts to walk out of the alley. Over her shoulder, she calls, "Win the next fight, and maybe I'll think about it."

From where he still lays on his stomach, Jann Lee laughs. Of course. Their whole relationship has just been a struggle for dominance. Why should it be any different now?

Jann Lee jumps to his feet and takes off after Leifang. Leifang squeals in delight as she picks up her pace to outrun him.

But unlike the last few years, she probably wouldn't be trying that hard to best him.


End file.
